A Touch of Death
by Daddy C
Summary: What would you do if you had the power to prevent death? If all you had to do was reach out and you would know when everyone would die. When what happens when HE comes to town, should Bella marry the one she hates? Or watch die the man she loves. BxE.


A Touch of Death

"I heard if you touch the Swan girl, you die ten days later." A boy snickered to his friend as they both walked past me.

No one ever dared touch me. Not because they would die ten days later, but because I made it obvious that I couldn't handle skin to skin contact. After several close calls and several panic induced freak outs, people pretty much learned to avoid me at all costs. The good people of Forks, Washington, made up this theory about me, if you touched me, you would die ten days later. They made this up after Tyler Crawley ran into me on accident in the hall way at school, and was crushed in a car wreck ten days later. This was only a week or so after I made a big deal about people being near me. They somehow overlooked the fact that Jessica Stanley's hand had touched my bare hand in the lunch line three months ago and she had yet to die. In fact she wouldn't die till April 22, 2016 at 3:34 am. I didn't know how she would die, just that she would on April 22.

I couldn't stand this odd curse I had, I couldn't really remember how I had gotten it either. Just that one day I woke up and every time I touched someone, I knew when they would die. Every day since then, at twilight, a red dahlia appears on my windowsill. I can't really explain that either.

My name is Isabella Swan, Bella for short, I'm a senior at Forks High School, I'll be eighteen shortly, and at the age of fifteen I woke up with the ability to know the date of everyone's death just by touching their skin.

--

Charlie's death date was not for another twenty seven years, he was the first one I touched after coming out of my coma three years ago. I didn't understand the random number that flashed in front of my eyes when he held my hand after I woke up. I thought nothing of it, thinking it was a lingering effect of the coma I had just awoken from. Then all of the doctors touched my forehead, and the nurses checking my pulse, and numbers flashed in my eyes again. I kept quiet about it, not wanting to stay in the hospital longer than necessary. It wasn't until the day after I had been released from the hospital when one of the nurses that had been treating me wound up on the news because she had been murdered the night before.

I remembered noting that the date that flashed in my eyes when she touched me was much sooner than the dates of the others. When she came on the news that day I had my suspicions, but not until this had happened once or twice more was I completely convinced that I was seeing the death dates of the people I knew, or even didn't know.

Because of this I was afraid to touch anyone I hadn't already come in contact with. There were only two people I could touch, Charlie, my dad, and Dr. Cullen. Dr. Cullen, or Carlisle as I had been instructed to call him, was almost like my own personal on call doctor. I got hurt so much and so easily that his number was on speed dial. Carlisle lived just a little outside of Forks, with his wife Esme, and adopted children Emmett, Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, and Edward. Though I had met Esme, and Jasper quite a few times and Alice was pretty much my best friend, I had yet to meet Emmett, Rosalie, and Edward; they had all already graduated high school and were attending Everest University in Seattle.

I was afraid to touch Alice, ever. I was too close to her; she really was my best friend. She understood enough to know not to ask, and enough to not actually ask. I really wanted to tell her about it, but I couldn't ever bring myself to do it. If she found out, would she freak out and never talk to me? Or would she accept it? Until I knew for sure, and I might never, I couldn't ever tell her.

"Bella," speak of the devil, Alice right on time.

"What's up Alice?"

"Don't you ever feel like punching out people like that, the ones that talk about you in front of your face? At least Jessica and her skanks have the decency to cover their mouths."

This was exactly why Alice was my friend, and not Jessica.

"I mean like, I know you can't _actually_ punch them, but don't you ever want too?" She continued, when she got on these types of rants, it was hard to calm her down; she was pretty protective of me.

"Come on Calamity Jane, I know you'd like to stay here and do me justice, but we have class." I reminded her, trying to get her mind off my problems. I grabbed her arm where the sleeve was, careful not to touch the bit of exposed flesh only inches away, and pulled her towards the school building in front of us.

"Well, at least we only have like, what, less than two months until graduation I'm pretty sure." She said, a lot more enthusiastic than I felt about it.

"Ugh, don't remind me," I whined. I really didn't want to think about graduating, and going off to . . . _College._ If Alice thought it was bad for me here, it would be ten, maybe twenty times as worse in a big fucking college. Where people wouldn't be from small towns and they wouldn't assume something bad would happen if they touched my skin. I would be faced with the deaths of everyone I came in contact with.

"Oh don't be such a spoil sport! I'm excited! Summer is almost here! You know what that means right?" Her big grin was contagious and I soon felt the corners of my mouth turn up in a weak smile of my own, though I had no idea what she was talking about.

I shook my head to let her know I wasn't on the same page as her; she signed and rolled her eyes the smile falling from her face and a comical scowl taking its place.

"Emmett, Edward, and Rosalie will be home from Everest!"

I had forgotten that little detail.

"And then you can _finally_ meet them!"

I had forgotten that little detail as well.

I tried to push it out of my head for the time being, I had class to get to, and people to avoid.

Charlie thought it was a social problem, like I didn't want to spend time with people, I guess that might be half true, most people here were complete morons. People here thought it was cool to drive around Forks in the middle of the night.

Alice came from a classier background. Granted we didn't sit around eating caviar, drinking wine, and talk about politics, but we had a finer taste in things than the bitches here.

Class, had to get to class.

Class was a sordid affair, dodging more than just touches. People liked to stare, even though I was long past new news. Avoiding people had become something of a game. I knew it was wrong to abuse myself that way, but after years of being an outcast you learned to take pleasure in the small things. Like playing hopscotch across a class room floor just to get to your seat in biology.

When school was over I was at my happiest. All I had to do was make it to my truck. It was such a happy time that I had the number of steps counted.

5 . . . 4 . . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . Alice.

"What Alice?"

"Can I come over today, no one's at my house right now, and I don't like being lonely."

"Sure, do you need a ride?"

"Of course not, I have my baby."

Her 'baby' was a bright yellow Porsche that she loved more than breathing. Mine was a faded red Chevy truck from the 50's, I love it more than Alice loves her Porsche, people think I'm crazy; I just have a fondness for being unique. Too bad it has to come at such a high price, the death of people.

When we got home, the first thing I did when we got up to my room was go to the window and pick up the red dahlia that waited for me on my windowsill every day. Sometimes I didn't want to explain where they came from, I liked the spontaneity of the flower, but on the other hand I was dependent on the regularity of the occurrence.

A few things I should explain about my curse, it didn't use to be this bad, somehow it gets worse every year. The first year I had it, I only saw the day of their death, the next year I started seeing the hour, now it was down to the minute and second. I was always warned beforehand that it would happen; a note was left with the flower on a random day out of the year always saying almost same thing every year.

"I'm sorry Bella, you haven't said yes to me, things just get worse from here. Say yes, it could all be over."

Not knowing who the flowers or the notes came from was difficult on these days, I would say yes to them in a heartbeat if I could just get rid of this damn curse. I was terrified to think of what would happen this year. Maybe I wouldn't have to find out; I was doing such a great job of avoiding people so far, if I could do it forever, the curse could never get worse for me.

The fact that I had hidden all of this from everyone, including Alice and Charlie was still a miracle to me; I didn't know how much longer I could keep it up though. I didn't want to have to worry about it right now though, so I opened up the window and reached for my flower. This wasn't all that strange to Alice, she had seen me do it many times before, always making some sort of remark about a shy lover, who desperately wanted to be with me, but was disfigured just like the phantom from Phantom of the Opera. So instead of talking to me, he left me a flower every day. The thing that got me was that he left dahlias, not roses, dahlias. They were my favorite flower, and no one knew that. Not Charlie and not Alice. Just me, I thought.

When I reached my hand out, I found my flower, and, to my dismay a note attached to it.

I was almost expecting, it seemed to come the day I thought about it, it was scary sometimes.

I put the flower with the ones from this week and slipped the note into my pocket, hoping Alice hadn't seen. She didn't know about the annual note, and if she did, I would have to explain everything and possibly lose my best friend.

So I kept it quiet, and went to sit on the edge of the bed with her.

"Lover boy's flower, huh?"

"You got it"

"Wish he'd just come up and talk to you, but how romantic is this? Three years you've been getting these flowers, right?"

"That's right, three long years."

"What, you don't like getting the flowers?"

"No, the flowers are fine; it's the fact that he never says anything." Even though that was mostly a lie, it had some truth to it.

"That's true, that would bug the fuck out of me." Always so verbal little Alice was when wound up.

"Yeah, it bugs me pretty bad." I was drifting, trying not to play with the note in my pocket, trying not to draw attention to myself, or the fact that I was no longer listening to Alice babble on about whatever she was babbling on about.

When it was time for her to leave, I heaved a sigh of relief. The note seemed like it was burning a hole in my pocket, and I wanted to get it out before the burn became too visible. I gave Alice a quick hug and waved goodbye to her, telling her to call me when she got home so I knew she was ok, and telling her I'd see her tomorrow at school.

When I finally shut the door, I ran up the stairs to my room, slammed the door, and threw myself onto my bed. I pulled the note out of my pocket and unfolded it quickly, tearing it a little in my haste.

"Why do you keep denying me? Just say yes Bella. This time it gets much worse, I hope you can stand to watch them die."


End file.
